Defense Technica Review

Stop me if you've heard this one before

If tower defence is what you want, then it's tower defence that you're going to get, unsurprisingly from the developers of the game, you guessed it, "Tower Defence". Coms2uS's second mobile-come-PC title, Defense Technica is a riff on a very similar tune and there aren't many surprising trills, fills, or exciting break downs to catch your attention.

Because in reality, this is particular piece of code is like a song you've heard over and over again. Taking in the experience is a bit like straining your ears, working out the familiar components, and trying to place the rhythm.

in the burning heart

It's a problem that all similar games have had to face in the glut of defence adventures that have hit websites, mobile platforms, and arcade console markets: the genre is so stale that it crumbles on your hard drive, and when you port over your portable wares from phone to desktop, the minions of boredom are undoubtedly going to break through fortifications and destroy your studio's own particular monolith of enjoyment.

Defense Technica then, isn't particularly a bad game, but almost entirely a redundant one. In the absence of a real narrative, proceedings can be boiled down to a few core ingredients: you have something worth destroying, and they want to destroy it.

The they in this particular piece of software settle somewhere near Halo's Covenant faction, endlessly marching from ship to tower, praying to be destroyed somewhere along the line. It's all very formulaic stuff, and in the absence of a few innovative tweaks is, as described above, very redundant.

Forcefields, lovely, lovely forcefields

After completing a few of the game's levels, it becomes almost impossible to get a grasp on just what its creators wish to achieve. This is a game that is perfectly serviceable, but also perfectly in existence already. The chances are, if you have attempted tower defence in the past decade, you have already played this particular skirmish.

Because in its essential parts, this lacks much needed originality. Each stage takes place somewhere beyond the intergalactic, with stars winking and enemies exploding, but none of this really ever threatens to ignite into a wider enjoyment.

All of which, wouldn't be so bad if simply experienced whilst sat on a bus, on a train, or taken in the company of for a few stolen moments, but placed on a desktop, the complete lack of anything makes it impossible to recommend beyond its core remit.

Towers will be upgraded, new enemies will force different types of weaponry, but anyone with a serviceable knowledge of Plants vs. Zombies will already understand the underlying goals. This is a game you have already played, minus the imagination, those first time feelings, and crucially any sort of identity. Popcap this isn't.

Stop me if you've heard this one before

Which all sounds entirely negative, but really DT packs its own enjoyments like any Tower Defence. It is perfectly well made, suffering few bugs, and bringing with it a few satisfying moments of maze-creation, and foe-fighting. But ultimately, this isn't enough. Amongst the crowded App and Android Store, this is an untroubling experience, accompanied by a small price, and even smaller expectations - but when brought to PC, it is dabbling within the same field as far superior games, and even MOBAs such as DotA and LoL.

DEFENSE TECHNICA VERDICT

Enjoyable? Certainly. Inventive? Never. Defense Technica is a game so humdrum and so by the numbers that it is a struggle to say anything much about. The game exists within its own genre, and that seemingly says enough. Serviceable to a fault, but where the developer’s expected to find their own niche, nobody will ever know.